crowson. >> i am megan pringle. hopefully you are up because you are up and not because tough work. thanks for joining us. we will start off with meteorologist mike masco. >> good morning. we are watching a couple pockets of downpours crossing 83 heading for jarrettsville 20 minutes or so falls road saw good downpour. this is pushing off towards the east. we will show you again, a pretty quick moving band of showers guster storms towards deep creek not impacting us. downpours the theme of the forecast and we turn our attention to the east. 76 in town right now. on the way for around 98 today. we have an excessive heat advisory in effect. 98 the two degree guarantee. going down to 97. no that would be a a problem. 75 for -- that would be a problem. 75 for tonight. we will talk about the seven- day forecast coming up. guys. more than half a million people had no power restored butter that long way to go. in some areas, power lines are

still on the ground and that's case in north baltimore where downed lines could be causing problems for people living in north baltimore off mcbeth street. >> we have a lot of kids and they are coming up and down the alley and it's hazardous. lines are down and we have the trees down and they haven't came down. and you have the trees. >> a lot of people are frustrated but we will stay on it and keep track half the lines are mixed. bge says they are work --track of what the lines getmixed. bge says they are working hard to get the people power. >> reporter: lnda so is at b -- linda so is at bwi with what's going on today. >> reporter: -- >> linda so is at bwi with what's going on today. >> reporter: they are reporting for the 16 to 18 hour shifts. this is rob with bge. where do things stand. >> we have 108,000 customers left to be restored.

we have restored well over a half a million customers in this going no a fifth day. >> reporter: today july 4th, the work doesn't stop for the guys. >> no. there is no holiday for bge. there are contractors out here with us. everybody will be work 1 to 16 hour days. some -- 12 to 16 hour days. at the end of the day, we want to bet everybody restored. we have 4,000 folks in total we brought in in a short period of time 4,000 you are seeing today and similar facility in lockheed martin. we are talking about 1300 contractors out therefrom as far as quebec and texas and florida. >> reporter: you are keeping a close eye on the radar looking at approaching storms. what could storms do to power restoration efforts. >> depends on what it is. if a storm comes through that's similar to the other night where we lost 12,000 customers, it is going to have an effect. and cumulus effect. if you lose several thousand

customers at a time, and depending where it is, you could see the restoration process elongate. we will worry about that part. we are making sure we are doing the goal at hard and trying to restore all power by the end of the weekend. >> reporter: we are going on day 6 of people are without power. the frustration levels i am sure are rising. starting today willy gave better eye did he what the -- will you be able to get a-- give a better eye did he when the power will be on. >> when we have eyes on the problem and a crew working a job and they believe they can fix it and restore it by a certain period of time we will on a limited basis with high confidence in the job provide the information but only where we know the job is going to get done he don't want to seat expectations to miss it and to upset or frustration customers further.

>> looking -- >> reporter: look ahead you are look -- looking ahead, you are looking to work into the weekend. >> no question. we will see the numbers continue to drop as we work on feeders that serve 1500 or 2000 customers. but as we get to the point where we have customers that are in the sphere of 1 to 20, 1 to 30, we are going see the numbersslow down in terms of coming down. and that's just because the nature of the work doesn't change but the amount of customers you get back does change. so, we are going keep working it. we have over 7500 reports of wires down. think about that. that's rivalling what we had a a-- what we had or approaching what we had between hurricane irene. parallels between hurricane irene and -- irene and this store are uncanny. whether it's the outage numbers or wires down on the other equipment it's rivalling irene and that is storm that came through in two hours. >> reporter: thanks for the

update. you see the contractors reporting but we will stay posted and let you know on the progress continuing throughout the morning. live in linthicum, linda so abc2 news. we have been tracking the area around stephenson lane in towson. those residents are in the dark for four days. that was until last night when the lights finally came back on. about 500bge customers are waking up to cooler homes today. about 3,000 customers running off separate system but in the air same yeah they are expected to come back online later today. -- in the same area, they are expected to come online today. >> we saw the lights and we screamed. >> some customers have power has gone back off after being restored. bge says it has a temporary outage while neighbors are be being restored. squad 11 in southeast baltimore and truck 15 were supposed to close up sunday

when the storm hit. that was on friday night. they stayed online. now they have been moved further ahead now they are set to close on monday, july 9th. >> absolutely. on tuesday the city extended their stay until monday july 9th. something to keep in mind. head to abc2news.com if you want more information. downtown baltimore will be buzzing with thousands of people ready to celebrate independence day. and they will be doing it with a fireworks display but city ofixes say they have been -- officials say they have been working all week to prepare for the large number of people. >> to not have a repeat of last year sherrie johnson is here on what's being done to keep 2000,000 -- 200,000 people. >> reporter: tonight is the huge night for the fireworks display. city police are expecting a large crowd for the festivities and they say they are ready. after the celebration last year, a man was stabbed to death with a broken bottle on pier 5 and a 4-year-old boy walking with his father was

shot in the leg. this year, baltimore police say they have a new plan in place to make sure it is safe for people to come and celebrate the 4th at the inner harbor. they will use a perimeter fence made up of bike racks about waist high and closing the inner harbor air yo to control the crowd and they will watch the crowds in realtime using city watch cameras and fox trots. >> we wish people would be adult and conduct themselves the right way. when they don't, of course we will do our jobs. >> reporter: now police expect more than 200,000 people to flood the harbor for the fireworks show tonight ten times the size of the new year's evecrowd and for everything you and your family need to know, head to our website at abc2news.com. we have a list of all the fireworks where they are going to be located and what times they start on the home page. sherrie johnson, abc2 news. one family celebration ended up in a disaster. >> coming in a bit, what happened during an annual

celebration that went from bad to worse. and landed many in a hospital and children. a stray dog made for an interesting situation during rush hour. we will have more video coming up next. >> heat and storms in the forecast. a look at your seven-day forthcoming -- coming up. have breakfast with milk and set the stage for a great day.

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now "good morning maryland." around the nation this morning, several people were hurt on tuesday in new hampshire because of the fireworks that went off on a back deck of the home. house was filled with smoke when crews arrived. 30 people were in the home. 9 people including 3 kin were taken to the hospital. neighbors say the owner of the home put on a large fireworks displayy year. a tv helicopter spotted this story of a dog running along the shoulder of a chicago interstate. they ran down the expressway and got off on an exit and ran into a neighborhood what resident was able to grab the pooch. now, the microchip in the dog showed he was from a mill in iowa. aside from dehydration and exhaustion, it is in good health. traffic officials are warning watch your speeds and stops on roadways today.

>> the research released about 4th of july the red light running what you need to know coming up next. also coming up a. live look outside and in minutes we will try to figure out what he onhand for the fireworks and we are going out back with a live demonstration. megan. going to blow stuff up. >> that's right.

now "good morning maryland." it happens every year. someone ends up getting injured after playing with fires works and doing it recklessly not being careful. plus, dry conditions create a real fire hazard. so megan moved outside with dan from phantom fireworks with great advice for you to keep in mind. megan. >> we don't want to that -- want that to happen. we will set off fireworks later on but first safety because you have to worry about that. >> yes. we are here to talk about fire work safety for the 4th of july for 2012. i am dan and i am the director of operations for phantom fireworks. and i've got our safety table here that we use in all of our show rooms. we have 60 permanent fireworks show rooms and a safety table is set up in every location as we use it as an opportunity to

educate customers about fire work safety and responsible use. some of the items we have up here today are fire he can continuing wisher, a -- extinguisher, a hose and safety goggle and safety fuses but all recommended items consumers should use when using fireworks safely for the 4th of july. so anything that can douse the area with water, and separate the consumers from the product and make sure we have a safe environment, so you can enjoy it safely next year too. >> is there a big mistake people make every year like one common one you say oh if they had a hose or if they used gloves or one thing people always do? >> yeah. you know some of the things seem minute and easy to overlook but having a bucket of or a bucket of water or a hose or a water supply is important. and people make mistakes of thinking fireworks are safe for kids and it's not. no fireworks are made for children. all fireworks are made for adult use only. >> let's talk about what's on

the table. you brought a lot of stuff. i can't wait to open up the boxes. what's popular and what's new? is there anything you are excited about that is different this year? >> yeah. what we have here is some of our fireworks that are legal in the state of maryland. we have some fountains over here. and the patriotic power blast fountain the fantasia fountain are the biggest found ns allowable by law. 500 grams of pyrotechnic composition and fun in the bocks here is one fuse away. >> and we will set them off at 6. >> i hope so. >> i like the sparkleers. they are so lame compared to everything else but they are pretty. >> i brought some for you. >> perfect. i will write our names in abc2news.com. before we go, one last thing. if you are going to say if someone is going to do one thing what would be spectacular to watch, safe for the family and really maybe your sort of favorite one. >> i love the fountains. and the patriotic power blast

and this harbor fountain when you light the fuse it will go for 4 minutes and it's going to spray a shower of sparks 8 to 10 feet in the air. different color and noise and whistling and crackeling and something for the whole family. light it one time and it's done. >> is it legal in maryland? >> we are setting it off at 6. what a reason to watch? now back to you and we will have a spectacular show in the parking lot. >> i want you guys to break the law. >> no it's not going to happen. >> i want illegal fireworks. >> see you in a moment. >> all right. thanks a lot. if you are headed out to enjoy the 4th, remember if you plan to drink, have a designated driver. you can always call for a free cab ride with tipsy taxi and the program of free cabs beginning tonight at 10 through 4 in the morning for thursday. there is no feed for you to -- need for you to get behind the wheel of a car. celebrating the red white and blue doesn't mean you can run the red lights. we ranked near the top with california, florida and texas

for running red lights the most during the july 4th holiday. that's according to the national coalition for safer road n our state, 38% pour red light violations occur this week than any other in the cal nder year. the problem is no one knows why. five things to know before heading out the door. the annual 4th of july tradition takes place today. nathan's famous hot dog eating conteeter scheduled for today. joe yes-- contest scheduled for today. joey chestnut will strike to keep the title. 40 new u.s. citizens will be welcomed in. naturalization ceremony will be at 10 this morning. behight house cabinet secretary will be -- white house cabinet secretary will be giving the address. troopers will be target dangerous drivers. it's all to recuse traffic fay -- reduce traffic fatalities.

each maryland barracks with the state police will deploy special drunk driving patrols. nine school zones will get speed cameras lawn reduce driver speed. there's a 30-day warning phase and then the warnings are tickets and the fines will run about $40. if you are renting while waiting to buy a house the numbers may think you -- may make you think twice. sources say rent increases have clearly outpaced the rising cost of homes. >> a lot of people paying attention to the weather getting ready for tonight and the july 4th celebration. i see dreary skies ahead. >> dundalk has clouds hanging tough but the sunshine will come out. we will talk about our temperatures rising dramatically. we have a couple scattered showers over northern carroll and baltimore county. we will slide it off toward the

east and another shot moving -- that's just pulsed up a little bit. lightning out of that as it moves into rising sun around the maryland house. you can see showers maybe again perhaps a quick lightning bolt out of the sky. 76 downtown. a pair of 7s in dc. eastern shore numbers near 80. that's the launching pad for the 90s later today. excessive heat advisory for up and down the 95 corridor as we head into the afternoon. look at temperatures. 90s with maybe a possible shower or thunderstorm this evening. and then by tomorrow, we are well into the 90s to around 100 with the humidity that will come into play. so 98 today. hot and humid and spotty showers and a gusty storm after 4. tonight we will get down to 75 and i think any storm will wrap up early and 100 degrees. thursday is going to be a hot day feeling like 110 guys. >> all right. thanks so much mike. maryland live opened in arundel mills last month making big bucks. >> coming up, the monies the

casino brought up last month that put it as the top of the list for some big, big earners. >> and a possible deadly disease found in an ocean city hotel. where they found it and what you need to look out for. details ahead. @ get your cash back! oh, hi. which cash back booth looks better to you, chase freedom or the largest cashback card? oh, i'll try the largest. oh, that is too bad. apparently you don't know chase freedom guarantees you 1% cash back. 4 times more than the largest cash back card, which only gives you a quarter percent until you spend $3,000 every year. but have fun. bob and weave once you're in there. don't get short changed. get your cash back. chase freedom.

now "good morning maryland. >> getting close to 6:00. it's maryland's biggest and newest casino and this morning, it is highest earning casino. at least in june, maryland liveopens june 6th and brought in 28 1/2 million bucks. just last month that is more than twice as much money as the state's two other casinos combined. hollywood casino in perryville pulled in about 8 million andoceans down had 4.4 million. health officials are are saying two more cases of legionnaires disease popped up in ocean sety. both patients stayed at sea watch condominium. the sauna and one unit tested pos if i have for the bacteria that causes the disease. last year one person died after

cash it at plim plaza in ocean city. symptoms include fever, chills and a cough muscle pass ooms and headaches. symptoms appear within two weeks of being exposed to the bacteria. as we said, league nares can be deadly. if you -- neej nares can -- legionnaires can be deadly. if you have been out in parts ofwooster county especially around the sea watch condominiums, go to your doctor as quickly as possible. 5:56. this is weird. two men were charged with trying to steal a highway light pole on intersay the 695. troopers say they were -- interstate 695. troopers say they were using a saw to cut the pole. parts of the pole was loaded into a truck. the two had been charged with theft and malicious destruction of property. he was one of the most beloved sheriffs in american history. >> the end of an era.

andy griffin is dead at 86. >> soon you will be able to know your hiv status and won't have to leave your home. a kit you can pick up ahead. >> also they were caught breaking into cars in one denver neighborhood. police on the scene say they believe the family was actually looking for. mike. >> we have showers moving across the area. an excessive heat advisory that we will talk about on the 6 a.m. edition of good morning maryland. [ female announcer ] safeway presents

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